Cervical cancer statistics

Cervical cancer is the 4th most common cancer in women worldwide.

Latest cervical cancer data

Cervical cancer (also known as cancer of the cervix uteri) is the 4th most commonly occurring cancer in women and the 7th most common cancer overall. There were more than 604,000 new cases of cervical cancer in 2020.

The 10 countries with the highest rates of cervical cancer and the highest number of deaths from cervical cancer in 2020 are shown in the tables below.

ASR = age-standardised rates. These are a summary measure of the rate of disease that a population would have if it had a standard age structure. Standardisation is necessary when comparing populations that differ with respect to age because age has a powerful influence on the risk of dying from cancer.

Cervical cancer rates

This table shows global cervical cancer incidence in 2020. Eswatini (which changed its name from Swaziland in 2018) had the highest rate of cervical cancer in 2020, followed by Malawi.

RankCountryNumberASR/100,000
World604,12713.3
1Eswatini34184.5
2Malawi4,14567.9
3Zambia3,16165.5
4Tanzania10,24162.5
5Zimbabwe3,04361.7
6Lesotho54156.8
7Uganda6,95956.2
8Comoros16756.0
9Mozambique5,32550.2
10Guinea2,06850.1

Cervical cancer deaths

This table shows global cervical cancer mortality in 2020. Eswatini had the highest rate of cervical cancer mortality in 2020, followed by Malawi.

RankCountryNumberASR/100,000
World341,8317.3
1Eswatini21455.7
2Malawi2,90551.5
3Zambia1,90443.4
4Zimbabwe1,97643.0
5Tanzania6,52542.7
6Uganda4,60741.4
7Comoros10939.8
8Mozambique3,85038.7
9Lesotho36238.7
10Burundi1,12638.5

What causes cervical cancer?

There is evidence that the following are associated with an increased risk of cervical cancer: HPV infection, smoking and Dethylstilboestrol (a synthetic oestrogen, now withdrawn).

There is also some evidence that:

> Read more about what can cause and what can protect against cervical cancer

Notes

The data on this page comes from the Global Cancer Observatory, owned by the World Health Organization/International Agency for Research on Cancer, and is used with permission. The cancer incidence figures and ASRs were compiled using the data available here (last accessed 23 March 2022). For queries about our cancer statistics please email the Research Interpretation team: ri@wcrf.org.